Working day and night

This is the one and only "professional" picture taken of me during the triathlon. This proves that I was at the race...and also that I look like a man in a wetsuit. Although I'm about to pass a dude who looks about 10 years older than me, so that's cool. Also I think this is the first time in my life my arm has ever looked like it had any muscles in it at all...so that's also cool.

But enough triathlon talk for now, since that awesomeness [is awesomeness really a word? The spell-checker on here didn't say it was wrong...hah] is probably going to be put on hold until I can somehow find $500-$700 to buy a bike...boo that. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have saved up enough to do so...that money should probably be going to my apartment in Boston, but think of all the money I'll save on transit if I can commute by bike!

Tonight I ran the steeplechase at our summer track series meet, which was very fun because it's super low key and it was nice not to kill myself in a race for a change. :) I ran only about a minute slower than my PR, which makes me think my PR should probably be a whole lot better since this race wasn't hard at all...actually, I never thought steeple could actually be fun, but it was! I bet if I raced it more I would be more successful...but anyway. So I ran it with Nicole, which was fun because we're the two crazy 100 hurdlers-turned-distance-runners so it's quite fitting that we would run a distance/hurdles race together. :) But I love helping out at these meets because its so much fun to see all these people...from a high school kid who's never run before doing the steeplechase, to some 14 year old who ran EVERY SINGLE EVENT, to a 70 year old dude running the 400 and 800, to little kids who are just so excited to be out there...coming together and just enjoying the sport. It's a great opportunity for more competitive people to have another chance to race, but my favorite part is seeing the kids who think running around the track is the greatest thing that's every happened to them. It always reminds me of why I do all of these ridiculous things in the first place when I see people who are out there simply for the joy of doing it...that's really what its all about. Also, there was an under-7 50 yard dash, which totally made my day. I had a blast helping to time and of course, running the "turbo javelin", another exciting event for the under-7 set...you would be amazed at how entertaining little kids find chucking a plastic thing into a field. And I think if I could, all of my runs would take place under the lights, on a track, in the middle of the night. It's beautiful, peaceful, weird, all at the same time...but there is just something special about the atmosphere that happens under the lights.

Well, it's off to bed for me...work at 6:30 am again. I have been/will be working 13 days of the past/next 14 days so I really am feeling like I've done nothing but work...and running has suffered as a result. Hopefully feeling good during the steeple can snap me out of this weird laziness I've been in, because I really feel like its about time I start training for real again.